


The Twinsteads

by Thebookworm33



Category: Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: Burgstead TWINS, F/M, First time posting be kind, Highschool AU, Intelligence Unit in Highschool, Jay Halstead/Kim Halstead, New girl Hailey, Post-Season/Series 03 AU, Twinstead, Voight is Soccer Coach, highschool
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:27:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27046459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thebookworm33/pseuds/Thebookworm33
Summary: jaysbvpton on tumblr wrote: I need' and I mean NEED, Jay and Kim as siblings twins even. In high school. Like oh my god I can't get it out of my head.So, I gave it my best shot! I may not be the best writer but I hope it's done well enough and is interesting enough to catch the eye of a few readers.Burgstead twins in highschool Au with Hailey as the new girl.
Relationships: Jay Halstead/Hailey Upton, Kevin Atwater/Vanessa Rojas, Kim Burgess/Jay Halstead
Comments: 18
Kudos: 37





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello friends! So I haven't really posted my work since a discontinued spiderman fic forever ago, but jaysbvpton posted that message on Tumblr and it sounded kind of interesting so I gave it my best shot. I know I'm not the greatest writer but I did try. Please feel free to leave likes and reviews if you enjoyed it. Thank you and have a good day!

Jay’s POV

I wake to knocking on my door. I lift my head and growl out something that vaguely resembles ‘what’ before flopping back down on my pillow.

The door opens and something is thrown at my head, “Wake your lazy ass up and get ready before we’re late.” demands Kim from where shes stands in the doorway.

“Right.” I quip back sarcastically as I stand up, “Sure wouldn’t want to deal with the tragedy of being late to school.” I glance at the time and see that, as usual, she’s clearly paranoid and we still have plenty of time before we need to leave.

She scoffs and rolls her eyes as she replies, “Whatever Jay, just put a shirt on already and then come downstairs. I’ll make you toast.” That grabs my attention.

“Really? Why?” I ask as I pull on the first shirt in my drawer, a black Henley.

“Because.” She states matter of factly, “You’re driving me today.”I turn back to her with eyebrows raised both out of amusement and surprise.

“Oh really now? Says who, you?” I ask, with no real malice.

“Yep! She replies with a cheerful grin and promptly turns on her heel to go back downstairs. I shake my head to her retreating form though, I’ll admit, grinning as well. Shaking my head once more although she can’t see me, I stretch out my arms and back before packing my soccer gear and going to the bathroom to finish my mourning routine. By the time I’ve made my way downstairs to Kim, there is toast for me laying on the table as promised.

“Wow, you cut it into triangles for me _and_ I even get a glass of apple juice with it? If I didn’t know better I’d say you were trying to butter me up.” I say with exaggerated mock surprise.

“Oh shut up and eat your triangle toast.” She says with a small laugh so that it lacks any real heat. Naturally like the mature young man I am, stick my tongue out at her before promptly taking a large bite. “Oh, real mature J.J” she quips earning a scowl from me at the childhood nickname.

Since I’m already up, dressed, and fed, soon enough we’re out the door walking to my car. I get in the drivers side and look over to see Kim looking pointedly from the stuff in the passenger seat to me. I huff loudly as I dramatically move the stuff to the backseat with my backpack and soccer bag. “You know Jay, with Will gone, your the oldest sibling in the house, which means it’s your job to look out for me, and in turn, drive me places.”

Looking behind me after starting the car to make sure I’m good to pull out of the driveway I respond, “Oh I see, whenever _I_ try to play the older sibling card, its always ‘by like, less than ten minutes! We both know _I'm the_ more mature one Jay’ but you're allowed to pull it out when it’s convenient for you?” She simply smiles and shrugs and I find myself shaking my head at her once again and muttering, “unbelievable.” which causes her to laugh at me. I can’t help my lips twitching up into a smile, then again I don’t try very hard to stop it. Without Will, she’s all I got, and truth be told I don’t really mind driving her especially if I’m already going there anyway. Even if she, for some ridiculous reason, insists on being at school ten to fifteen minutes early. I turn the music on, sending her a glare when she picks up her hand to change the station.

It’s not a long drive to the highschool, and less than ten minutes later I’m pulling into my usual parking spot. “You are aware I have practice today right? We don’t get out till five-thirty.”

“Do you know how useless that would’ve been to not tell me until we were already here if I didn’t know beforehand? Honestly Jay, use that brain of yours you like to pretend you don’t have.”She jokes as we make our way to the Junior wing. “I’m going to the mall after school with Vanessa, we don’t know how long we’ll be out because we also talked about catching a movie but that’s not the point. She said she wouldn’t mind dropping me off afterwards so that’s why I went with you and...” I’m distracted from the one sided conversation - that I was only half paying attention to anyway because I’d heard what I’d needed to answer my question – by a pretty blonde standing in the middle of the hallway glancing around and looking lost.

I nudge her with my arm once she finishes her sentence and ask, “Who's that over there?” with the nod of my head in her direction since pointing would be too obvious.

“No idea.” She replies once she catches sight of who I was referring to. That all but confirmed my suspicion, Kim knows just about everyone in our grade and a good amount of the other grades too. It’s not that absurd, when taken into consideration how social she is and how small our school is. My sister isn’t the type to talk rudely behind people's backs but she does talk. A lot. Which results in her normally being able to, at the very least, be able to say who she hangs out with. So that begs the question, who is the girl with the wavy blonde ponytail?

School started a few months ago and it’s pretty unusual for us to get a new student not at the start of semester, being as small as we are. She’s rather short, so whether she’s a new student or not, I think odds are good that she’s in the wrong hallway. I’m considering asking Kim if she thinks we should go over and see if she needs help when I hear a familiar yell coming from the other end of the hallway.

“Yo, Yo! Twinsteads!”

The shout causes the mystery girl’s head to snap over in our direction and sense I’m already staring at her, her wide eyes snap to mine instantly. I quickly turn away to the source of the yell before it gets awkward to see Ruzek and Kevin headed our way, closely followed by Kevin’s ‘friend’ Vanessa.

“Hey Ruzie” I greet with a fist bump, ignoring the urge to turn around. Adam and I have played soccer together since the seventh grade and hated each other the second we laid eyes on each other until he walked in on some eighth graders jumping me for taking ‘their’ spot on the junior league team, attempted to help me and somehow ended up punching me in the face and chipping one of my teeth. A weird set of circumstances to kindle a friendship, but hey better than constantly having to avoid and ignore his stupid remarks and glares.

Kim and Vanessa wave goodbye and head off with some girl that I vaguely recognize as somebody she’s told me is in her leadership class, Kenzie or something like that. After Kevin excuses himself to go to the library to finish his math homework before the bell rings me and Ruzek start to make our way to the locker room to put away our gym bags. As we start off I can’t help but risk a look backwards for another glance at mystery girl, but there’s no sign of her blonde ponytail or blue flannel anywhere. I shake my head lightly to clear my head of her, after all, if she’s in a different grade chances are I won’t be interacting with her even with our less than average sized student body.

“So what’s new?” quips Ruzek as we reach the locker room doors. I simply raise my eyebrows at him in response. “You seem… distracted.” I then look up at him with one of my trademark grins.

“Wow Adam, didn’t know you were aware enough of your surroundings to notice something that deep. However did you come to that conclusion, were my eyes all misty?” I joke while blinking up at him dramatically.

“Whatever man.” He dismisses the comment with the wave of his hand then shoves past me playfully to get to his sports locker. “Good thing we have practice off tomorrow, after yesterday and Monday I’m sore all over.”

Even though I agree with him, our relationship just wouldn’t be the same without all the jabs at eachother so that is why I respond with, “Maybe you’re just not as fit as you used to be. You going soft on me? Huh Ruzek?”

He chuckles a little as he says, “Don’t pretend I didn’t notice you walking stiffer than normal. You may think I'm not observant, but I notice _plenty_.” He then claps me on the shoulder and we make our way to the cafeteria. We may not be the most advanced school in the state, but we’re also not run down. And one thing we have that most schools don’t, is access to coffee. I don’t know whose idea it was or what was done to get it approved but I owe them my life I decide as I get in line to buy a cup before sending my sister a quick text telling her to come to me. She shows up just in time to grab her cup and tell me to go to class, as the bells about to ring any second now.

“See ya.” I say with a half wave as we all go our separate ways to our own homerooms sipping my coffee in contentment.

… … …

Kim’s POV

As I make my way down the hallway reaching for my phone while trying not to drop the grammar book we’re supposed to bring to English today or my coffee I catch sight of a girl looking at the piece of paper in her hand to the door uncertainly. Taking a quick glance to confirm it’s a schedule I put on a comforting smile and say, “Hi, you have Mr. Foreman for homeroom?” After receiving a small nod from the blonde I pull the strap of my bag up higher on my shoulder and, phone forgotten, reach out with my free hand to grab the door to pull it open. “Cool. Me too, come on there’s a free desk next to mine.”

I walk over and to the two empty desks in the back then sit down and gesture to the one to the left of me. She sits down and shoots me a grateful smile. “Thank you.” She breaths out, still seeming anxious.

“No problem.” I say while turning my body to face her a bit more and take her in. She’s more on the short side, but not in a bad way and fairly attractive with medium length soft looking blonde hair and pretty blue eyes. “I’m Kim. Kim Halstead. Haven’t seen you around, you new?”

“Uh yeah, I just moved here. My name’s Hailey.” She says fidgeting with the corner of an English grammar book, not unlike my own.

“Nice to meet you Hailey. Mr. Foreman’s a freshman teacher that somehow ended up with a Junior homeroom. He may look kind of strict but he’s actually pretty easy-going. To the juniors anyway, Do you have English next?” I ask, looking down at her hand still messing with the corner then back up to her face. She immediately takes her hands and clasps in with her other one in her lap.

“Yeah.” She says, and I see her seeming to be debating for a few seconds whether or not she wants to say something or not before she decides to go for it. “Do you know how to get there? I’m still kind of confused by the layout of the school.”

I feel my smile grow as I realize that although I may originally thought of her as shy and a girl of few words, it’s starting to feel like there’s more to her and that she probably would have lots to say if she was more comfortable. “Sure thing, you actually have that class with me and my twin brother Jay. I guarantee when you meet him one of the first things out of his mouth is that he’s the older twin.” That successfully makes the corners of Hailey’s mouth twitch up. “Or that he’s the more attractive one.” I add, which results in the small victory of her letting out a small laugh.

After sitting through morning announcements, going up to the front of the room to check our names on a paper to show we’re here, and telling Hailey the general direction we’ll be going to get to English, we pack up our stuff and head on our way. “The teacher doesn’t care where we sit and there’s room at me and Jay’s table.” I tell her so she’ll have one last thing to worry about.

Jay’s already in his seat when we get there, distracted by something on his phone, and doesn’t look up until we reach the table. When he does finally look up he takes one look at Hailey and honest to god _freezes_ for a second there. Trying not to laugh, I take the liberty of introducing them. “Hailey, this is my brother Jay. Jay this is Hailey. Hailey...” I trail off looking at her, realizing I don’t know her last name.

“Upton.” She offers up with a small smile.

Jay, seemingly over whatever that was, smiles back and says, “Well Upton, you should consider yourself lucky.”

“Oh?” replies Hailey, cocking her eyebrow and playing along, “And why’s that?”

Jay smiles even wider, seemingly amused she took the bait. “Because,” he answers cooly, “Now that you’ve officially met the more attractive Halstead twin, twinstead if you will, your life is complete!”

This causes Hailey to chuckle a little and then look at me with a knowing smile. When I look back over to Jay I see he looks rather proud of himself. Rolling my eyes softly we take our seats, me at the end next to Jay and Hailey sitting down in the empty chair on his other side.

I started off paying attention to the assignment we’re supposed to be doing, but after about five minutes I all but abandoned it to watch the far more entertaining little dance Jay and Hailey seemed to be doing with eachother. Every now and then one of them would glance over at the other, then after a moment go back to looking at their paper. Sometimes, as timing would have it, they would look up at eachother at the exact same time which would cause Hailey to turn red and look down, blocking the side of her face that’s visible to us with her hand, and for Jay to turn and look out the window that’s behind me.

About ten minutes later, on the third time this occurred, Jay looked at me instead of out the window because he could tell I was trying not to laugh with the way I pursed my lips. “What?” He mouths with a slight scowl on his face. I simply raise my eyebrows in response as if to say, ‘Really? You know exactly what I’m laughing at’ He just huffs at me and goes back to his paper, where there are only two questions filled out. This actually does make me chuckle a little which causes Hailey to look up at Jay sulking and me looking fairly entertained.

I watch her open her mouth to say something, close it, twist her face up a little then straighten up and asks us, “Well what’s going on over here? Having a secret telepathic conversation using your freaky twin powers?”

Before I get a chance to respond Jay beats me to it by saying, “Exactly.” with a head nod. “So you better watch out, or you might catch yourself on the wrong side of our ‘freaky twin powers’”

Hailey doesn’t respond right away, but rather turns back to her paper and makes a show of writing quickly at the bottom of the paper. “Well.” She starts off while standing up, “You’re twin powers are just gonna have to keep up.” and then she walks to the front of the room to turn in her paper and come back to a sulking  
Jay and me trying, once again, the best I can to keep my laughter down.

The bell rings just after Jay mutters, “Oh it’s on.” And he’s out the door without anytime from a response from either of us. I’m sad to see that the playful confident look that suited Hailey has been replaced by the same look of uncertainty she said when I first met her. Within seconds, she already looks smaller.

“Hey, he’s just messing around. He may look and sound tough sometimes but he’s got a heart of gold.” I try to reassure her and calm whatever seems to be going on in her head. “Come on, let’s go. We actually have leadership together too so I hope you’re not tired of me yet.” Luckily that earns a smile from her, even if it is rather small.

… … …

“That’s the new girl, Hailey.” I tell Adam and Kevin at lunch, Jay just reaching the table and sitting down with us as we watch her and Vanessa walking over to our table. “Her and Vanessa actually hit it off pretty well, maybe we’ll ask if she wants to join us at the mall today.”

Once they’re closer to the table I lift my hand to wave, “Hailey! You can sit by me. Thank goodness your here, it’s finally even.” And so she sits down next to me with Vanessa on her other side and Jay, Adam, and Kevin sitting across from us.

“This is Adam and Kevin, boys, Hailey.” I say gesturing to each of them to get that out of the way. “Hailey just moved here.

“Hi.” Says Hailey simply with a warm smile before turning her attention to the school hamburger she has on her plate, eyeing it suspiciously.

Jay, who I couldn’t help but notice hadn’t been looking anywhere but her since I pointed her out to the boys pushes some ketchup packets over towards her. “It may not look the best, but the school food has yet to make anybody sick that I know of. Put enough ketchup on it and it tastes all right.” He says with a shrug and a smile.

“Thank you.” Hailey says looking in a way that makes it seem like she means for more than just the ketchup. And maybe she does, everybody knows it’s no fun to be the new kid whether from experience or common sense. I know if I were in her shoes I’d be grateful for a group of kids making my day less stressful than it needs to be.

“Anytime.” Jay replies with that stupid grin on his face as he reaches over the table to snag a fry off her plate. I immediately look over to Vanessa to see if she’s seeing what I’m seeing, and sure enough she’s already looking at me with the same knowing look. Poor girl hasn’t even been here a day and Jay’s already crushing _hard._

The next part of lunch goes by smoothly, Hailey smiling at the boys antics and Kevin’s petty argument with Vanessa over his math work that’s due next period. She even cracks a few jokes of her own, though mostly remaining silent seeming to just enjoy the easygoing banter and fun yet slightly chaotic environment.

“Hey Upton.” Vanessa says after giving up on Kevin’s so called ‘helpless case’. “Me and Kim were planning on heading to the mall after school. No real reason for going but these two,” she jabs her finger in the general direction of Adam and Jay “Have practice and Kev has work so we figured why not. You in?”

Once again, this seemingly simple event seems to have caused a full one eighty in Hailey. “Um.. well I can’t because- but that’s nice of you to-” She stammers out before stopping to take a breath and smile. “Sorry. I can’t come I have stuff I need to deal with today. Thanks for inviting me though” She says, pulling and her sleeves and continuing with her smile that feels just a little too forced in my opinion, but I’m not about to comment on it. Soon enough the bell rings and we get up to go off different ways.

“Earth to Jay,” I say with a snap of my fingers in front of him, who seems to be deep in thought. He looks up at me and mumbles a quick sorry before packing up to go to history with me. “And what has you so lost in thought? Hmm? Could it be...I don’t know, perhaps a certain blonde haired blue eyed beauty?” I say tapping my chin with my index finger in faux thought.

“Oh shut up.” He grumbles as he shrugs on his bag and walks faster than necessary to make some sort of point. I comply just until we’re situated in the classroom with some random, boring, history documentary playing.

“No really,” I whisper to him half-turned back in my chair to Jay. Even when there aren’t assigned seats we end up next to eachother due to last name. “What’s your take on Hailey? You developing feelings day one or am I misguided.”

I hear him give a slight sigh before turning back to face me. “Well she’s… intriguing to say the least. Definitely beautiful. But there’s something off about her. She seems fine and joking until some unknown trigger or whatnot turns her guarded and almost scared. Could be just first day nerves, but I don’t know I thought we were pretty open, were we too much?” He finishes, drawing a breath.

“Nah. You’re not _that_ bad.” I attempt to joke but the tone falls flat. “I know what you mean. But she seems nice. Maybe she just needs to be around us more and get more comfortable. After all, she did just meet us.”

“Fair enough.” He replies with a half shrug, though he looks unconvinced. Instead of debating it more, I just let him turn back towards the front. Even I got to admit something does seem kind of off. Not really in like a ‘she’s bad news’ kind of way, but definitely something. Who is Hailey Upton, and what’s her story? I don’t know, but one thing is for sure. Jay seems just as set on figuring it out as me, maybe even more.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Friends! First things first, thank you all so so much for the kindness you have been showing, I did not think this story would get as much attention as it already has. I appreciate every person who took the time to comment, give kudos, and even just read! I'm sorry it took so long to get this chapter out, as the park scene wasn't written as well as I wished it was and decided not to upload it Wednesday like I planned but went back and tried to make it better. Still not as good as I wish it was, I want to only give you guys the best to show how much I appreciate you, but I hope you still enjoy it! Happy Friday and have a good weekend!

Jay POV

After saying goodbye to the girls and Kevin, me and Ruzek made our way to the locker room to get ready for practice. Hailey wasn’t at the lockers with everyone else at the end of school, Vanessa mentioned she said something about wanting to make sure she got a good spot on the bus. Even though it’s a fair point and I can’t really fault her for it, I can’t help but be a little upset that I won’t get to see her till tomorrow. I mean, can you blame me though? If you met a girl like Hailey, an actual literal walking enigma, would you honestly be able to say you weren't intrigued? So yeah, I'm curious, sue me. I just want to know everything about her, that’s all. 

“… is insane, right man?” I hear the tail end of whatever was being said to me as I snap my thoughts away from the blonde. I blink at him stupidly for a second before my brain registers it was just asked a question.

“Yeah yeah, for sure.” I reply in a way I hope doesn’t give away I have no idea what’s going on. He gives cocks his head a little and gives me a weird look but doesn’t question me so I count it as a win. We finish getting ready and then set off towards the soccer field where the majority of our team is already there stretching. 

“Remember,” I start on Ruzek, “First game is coming up, don’t you dare do anything stupid to get you benched. Control your anger, yeah?”

“Oh whatever.” He responds, pushing his shoulder against mine in a half shove. “I’m not that bad.” to which I chuckle a little in response.

Both our heads turn towards the direction of our coach when we hear his deep gravely voice yelling at us, “Quit taking your sweet time and get your asses over here!” So after a quick glance at each other, we jog the rest of the way.

“Alright ladies, now that you’re all finally in one place I want five laps around the school and then we’re running drills.” says coach Voight in a rather bored tone. “Now!” he snaps when no one moves, taking a breath and shaking my head a little I start off at a jog with Ruzek sprinting in front of me because no matter how many times we go through this he hasn’t got it through his head that he’ll end up regretting not pacing himself before lap two’s even done with. 

Sure enough, Ruzek shows up beside me by the time I’ve already taken a few sips of water, gripping his side and looking regretful. I open my mouth to say something but he just holds up his hand and shakes his head so I give him a grin instead as I hand him his water. “Hey, just like you said, at least we have tomorrow off.” 

“Yeah.” He breaths out moodily which just makes me laugh at him again. “Let’s just get these drills over with.”

… … …

A tiring two hours later we’re all exhausted and ready to be done for the day. I’m putting my gear in my bag when I pick up on a conversation between Daniel O’Harris and Scott Kane, who everyone just calls Scotty.

“...new blonde?” I hear from O’Harris.

“Aw hell yeah,” replies Scotty. “She was walking in front of me in the hallway and let me tell ya, I’d hit that for sure.”

My face screws up in disgust, I know some people are all about sex and this is just typical guy talk but it doesn’t mean I want to hear about it. Especially when they’re talking about somebody I know, and I know it’s Hailey because there’s only one new student today.

“Good luck with that one buddy.” O’Harris says with a laugh. See, I would’ve even let the whole situation go if it wasn’t for what Scotty said next. They were just being boys, no real harm was being done. 

But then Scotty opened his big mouth and said, “Oh just you wait, new girl’s gonna be my new bitch come Friday.” I was in his face before I could even fully process what was going on. 

“The hell you just say?” I snarl out, scowling at him and clenching my fists in anger. 

He holds his hands up in a placating gesture, he may have broader shoulders and it built more like Kevin, but I’ve earned somewhat of a reputation as not being someone you want to cross. “Whoa man, take it easy, I was just talking about how..”

Fury building up at the way he’s still treating what he said as no big deal I cut him off with a shove that’s not hard enough to really do harm, but also isn’t soft. “Oh I heard what you said. I know you're not telling me ‘take it easy’ when you blatantly disrespected a girl like that.” I say, punctuating each word with a poke in his chest.

A hand is put on my shoulder then and I shrug it off aggressively. “Jay, stop it’s not worth it.” I hear Ruzek say from somewhere off to my left.

I spare him a quick glance of disbelief and anger and respond, “Yes, she is.” This for some insane unknown reason, causes Scotty to have the audacity to actually laugh. “Find this situation funny Scotty? You better drop the grin before I drop it for you.” I threaten, not at all aware of how much attention I’m causing.

“Oh no.” says Scotty with yet another laugh. “I just finally get what you're so worked up about. You want her all to yourself huh? That it? You’re no better than me Halstead, you’re already planning on grabbing that Hailey bitch by the-” He’s cut off when he hits the ground, all air leaving his lungs from the massive shove I gave him without a second thought. I’m blind with rage, Adam’s hand rests on my shoulder once more and this time I don’t pull away because I know not to take this any further physically with so many people watching.

“Leave her name out of you’re filthy mouth or I swear to fucking God you’ll regret it.” I say in a deadly serious tone. Everyone’s frozen looking over, seeing what we’re gonna do now. Then, the silence is broken.

“HALSTEAD!” yells Voight as he makes his way over, scowl far more intimidating than mine. “The hell you think you’re doing?” After a brief stare-off that doesn’t take me long to lose because even I’m aware of how this looks. “Alright everybody clear out. You, come with me.” He says with a pointed look that leaves no room for argument. Coach turns and walks towards the direction of his office and I turn to Ruzek as O’Harris helps Scotty up, both looking satisfied at the reaction of Voight.

“What was it you told me before practice? ‘Control your anger’?” asks Ruzek. “I think you’d be good to take your own advice man. Hopefully this doesn’t cost you the first game.”

“Yeah.” I admit with a sigh, because there’s no point denying I lost control.

“Want me to wait for you?” He asks, because sometimes we grab a bite after practice.

“No, don’t wait up. I’ll let you know what happens.” I tell him, because who knows how long I’ll be, and I’m not that hungry at the moment anyway. The adrenaline is fading along with the pounding in my ears, leaving just worry for what my fate will be. Here’s the thing though, If I were to do it all again, I’m not even sure what, if anything, I’d do differently. I wouldn’t just stand around and let him talk about any girl that way, never mind Hailey. She is part of our group now, and after all, we stick up for eachother. Doesn’t mean it won’t suck if Voight benches me from the first game though.

“So?” prompts Voight once he shuts the door to his office and we both sit.

“So?” I repeat, still trying to figure out what my best course of action right now is.

He leans forward over the desk and looks at me for a second. “Don’t play games with me Halstead, you’re better than that. Give it to me straight, what happened. The only reason I didn’t bring Kane in with us is because I figured I wouldn’t need his side of the story because you’d be straight with me. Prove me right.”

I sigh and rub my face, knowing there’s no real way out of this. Ruzek was right, I probably should’ve just controlled my anger better. But then I think of what he said about Hailey and I feel my blood start to boil again. I take a quick breath to make sure my words don’t come out sounding all angry and tell him, “He was disrespecting a new student, I told him to knock it off, then he was laughing and going off about how he realized I was defending her because I wanted to be the one to manhandle her. He said and I quote, “You just want to be the one to grab that Hailey bitch by the-” and then I snapped and shoved him to the ground.

He just sits and stares at me with a blank look, long enough to make it difficult from keeping from shifting in my seat. Finally, he stands up and tosses me the keys to the storage room, “You will stay here and pack away all the gear. As of right now, you’re not benched from the first game but you better watch yourself Halstead. I mean it.”

I open my mouth to ask what he’s gonna do about Scotty, but snap it shut at the look he gives me. “Yes, Coach.” I reply instead, and with that we walk out of the office without another word.

… … …

By the time I make it to my car after putting everything away, locking up and leaving the keys on his desk, the sun is pretty much done setting. I decide to stop to get a bite from the local taco place before heading home, because even though I wasn’t hungry when I was talking to Ruzek, I certainly am now. Even though I don’t know if my sisters hungry, or even home for that matter, I get her a single taco and a soda just in case. I text Ruzek a short text saying it went better than expected and then go back over the events of practice in my head.

I’m so busy thinking about how stupid Scotty is and how upset I am he’s not gonna get anything worse for what he said about Hailey than the shove I gave him, that I almost miss the silhouette on the top of the playground. I do a double take as I realize the figure curled in up there looks rather like the very same girl who I was just thinking about. I shake my head a little to clear it, because it’s probably not her and I’m just projecting it because she’s stuck in my head. But then I take a closer look and sure enough due to my headlights I can just make out a familiar blue flannel.

I’m getting out of the car before I can even think about what I’m doing. I do so quietly and make my way over slowly and carefully. Once I get closer I see she has her knees up to her chest with her arms around them, head facing away from me. I climb the ladder that leads me to the top and crouch down. “Hey.” I call out softly while going to rest my hand on her shoulder, “Are you-” my hand makes contact and she becomes a flurry of motion.

She’s scrambling and flailing and backing away closer to the little bridge. Her words aren’t entirely clear but I make out what sounds like “Stop!” and “Don’t touch!” Once she’s decided she’s scrambled far enough away she stops flailing, but is now breathing pretty hard.

I hold up my hands and shuffle back, still crouched because if I stood I’d be practically looming over her and anybody with a brain can tell why that’s a bad idea. “Sorry. It’s Jay. I won’t touch you, I won’t touch you, I promise. It’s Jay. You’re alright.” I tell her softly and it thankfully causes her to peak up at me a little through her arms.

“Jay?” she mummers.

“Yeah.” I breathe out with a small smile. “Hi.” I can see her face redden as she becomes more tethered to reality, whether from embarrassment or the cold, it’s anyone’s call. Maybe a little of both. It is rather cold out here, I can’t help but think as I rub my hands together. What the hell is Hailey doing out here by herself anyway? Looking around at all the houses I realize it’s possible she lives in one of these and just likes to come here instead of her backyard or something, but that still doesn’t explain whatever seems to be going on inside her head. I figure the only way to get answers is to ask, and since she’s calmed down a bit and recognizes me I decide to just go for it.

“Hailey?” I ask tentatively, “Hailey can you look at me?” It takes a second but she does lift her head up again to look at me. “There you are.” I say, allowing my smile to grow wider and moving to sit instead of a crouch to look less threatening. “Can you tell me what you’re doing up here?” She only responds with a shiver. I nod anyway, “Okay. You’re okay. You live by here?” I ask looking around at all the houses as though something will jump out at me and tell me where she lives. This earns a slight shake of her head. She’s much more receptive than I first thought, even if she isn’t talking. She must’ve just been lost in thought when I reached her and that’s why she freaked out.

“Oh? You don’t?” I ask which results is another shake of the head as confirmation. “Well I don’t either. So now we’re just two weirdos sitting on top of a freezing playground without jackets. What do you say you let me drive you home?” This time she shakes her head much more aggressively and scoots back a little more. We sit there in silence a few minutes more, me trying to figure out what to do or say next when my attention is brought back to her when she draws a breath like she’s about to say something.

Sure enough, after wiping a tired hand down her face she stretches out her legs and pulls her arms to her chest and says, “Sorry.” in a raspy voice. She then clears her throat and tries again, “Sorry. I’m fine, you can go now.” Then she shivers a little more violently.

“Uh-huh.” I reply sarcastically, “I can tell. Listen, why don’t you just come sit in my car okay?” I ask gesturing towards where It’s still sitting on the street. “Warm up a little. I even have an extra taco.” She looks back from my car to me searching my face and looking unconvinced. “Please.” I add in a whisper. 

“Okay.” she breaths out. I get up and as she goes to stand up I offer out my hand but she has already grabbed onto the bar to pull herself up so I just drop down to grab her backpack instead. I hand it to her once she’s up and then rub the back of my neck awkwardly. She shoulders on the bag and then pulls at her sleeves and looks at the floor. I climb down the ladder and check to make sure she’s following me before I move around the car to the passenger side and open the door, grateful the seat was cleared this morning. I grin over at her as she shuffles over and says thank you before getting in and setting her bag down at her feet. 

Then I get in on my side, start the car so I can get the heater running and go to hand her the taco. “You hungry for a taco? It’s beef. I got it for my sister but she and Vanessa ate at the mall.” I tell her, so that she won’t feel like she’s taking food meant for somebody else. Her stomach grumbling answers for me and her cheeks turn red again, this time undeniably from embarrassment.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” I say as I hand her the taco. 

She takes it gratefully and looks over in my direction but doesn’t quite meet the eye. “You didn’t have to uh- Thank you but- I just don’t-” She stutters out before she just stops and clears her throat again. 

“Here.” I say as I hand her the extra soda, “You can have this one.”

She takes reaches over slowly to grab in then takes a few sips. “Thanks.” she says simply but then surprises me by turning more towards me and looking me directly in the eyes. “Why are you being so nice to me? You don’t even know me.” She asks looking at me intently for my response. She doesn’t even seem to be judging me or already making assumptions, she just seems to want an answer.

“Honestly, I have no idea.” I tell her, and it’s true. I don’t know what it is about Hailey that just makes me want to be around and help her. “There’s just something about you. I can’t really explain it. All I know is you’re a good person and I trust you.” and with that, I take a huge dramatic bite of my taco to ease the tension, which succeeds in causing the corners of her mouth to twitch upwards looking less forced than it could be.

“So. What now?” I ask her.

“What do you mean?” she asks back without looking up from fiddling with her soda cup. 

“Well,” I start off slowly trying to figure out what I want to say, “You were pretty clear about not wanting me to drop you off at your house, and I don’t really just want to leave you here so….” I trail off.

She just shrugs and shrinks in on herself, almost as if she thinks if she becomes as small as she can she’ll disappear. And what’s even sadder, it kinda does feel that way. She looks tired, exhausted even, like today has been the worst day of her life. I sigh softly, making up my mind. “Put your seat belt on." I tell her as I put on mine.

“Why? Where we going?” She asks, reaching for the seat belt but waiting for my response.

“There’s an extra room at my house, you can just stay there tonight. I promise I’m not trying to lead you somewhere to kill you” I attempt to joke. She sort of makes a sound that could pass as a half laugh, but it seems as though she’s too preoccupied by the first part of the sentence to focus on the joke. Sensing that the gears are turning in her head and she just needs a moment to think, I sip at my drink and look out the window, resisting the urge to look back at her. Finally, after a couple minutes, I hear the unmistakable click of her seat belt.

“Okay.” She says rather confidently.

“Okay?” I repeat, wanting her to clarify what she thinks she’s saying okay to.

“Okay, I’ll go home with you.” She says, then immediately blushes. “I don’t mean- I just-” she pauses as she becomes more flustered. “I mean okay, I’ll stay in your spare room tonight. If that’s okay, that is.” 

I smile, “Of course it’s okay Hailey, I’m the one who offered, remember?” I remind her softly. “All set?” I ask, receiving a nod.

We spend the rest of the drive in silence, me wondering what I’m gonna tell Kim when we get there and her thinking about who knows what. It’s only once I pull into my spot in the driveway that Hailey breaks the silence. “And your parents are uh- they’re okay with you just bringing some girl they don’t know home and letting her stay the night in their guest room?” 

“My mom’s on a business trip right now, but even if she were home, no she wouldn’t mind. And my dad- well you don’t need to worry about him. He’s not here either.” is all I say before getting out of the car and heading to the door, trusting she’ll come with me. Unlocking the door and going through, I point up the stairs and tell her, “The guest room is the one at the end of the hall, it even happens to come with a joined bathroom.” After all, it was Will’s room before we left, and him being the oldest (and the favorite) got the best room and neither me or Kim really cared enough to even ask if one of us could move in there. Mom put different sheets and random decorations up so we just offhandedly refer to it as the guest room.

Hailey opens the door to the guest room as I pause outside Kim’s, about to knock to see if she’s home when it opens. “Oh. Hey. I was wondering when you’d be back. Adam texted and told me what happened at practice, how much trouble you get in? Voight bench you for the first game?”

Fidgeting a little as I remember what happened, and grateful she didn’t mention it had anything to do with Hailey I shake my head. “No, not this time.” Then I wave my hand, “Never mind that though, Hailey’s here.” I say, nodding in her direction. “She’s gonna stay in the guest room. Can you get her clothes to sleep in?” I ask in an even tone as though this is a casual situation. Kim, to her credit, doesn’t say anything but just blinks for a second, looks from me to Hailey then back again, and turns to go back into her room. Presumably to get clothes for Hailey. They look about the same size, so the clothes should fit her fine, they might be slightly too big but that’s not a problem.

Hailey, once she unfreezes from the spot she stood at, finishes opening the door and heads in the room, me following afterward. She sets her bag on the little chair in front of the desk and then just spins in a circle, looking at the room before taking a seat on the bed. “All the sheets are fresh.” I tell her. “And there’s more pillows If you want them.” She shakes her head to say she’s fine but I was already opening the closet to get them. I throw them on the bed behind her and tell her, “Well, you can never have too many pillows. And if you do, just throw them on the ground for all I care.”

“Oh. Uh. Thank you.” She says, moving them to sit upright at the head of the bed. Then I nod and we both just sort of look at eachother for a moment, neither quite sure what to say next, when my sister saves the moment by coming in the room. 

“Here you go.” she says, while handing a stack of clothes with some little bottles on top to Hailey. “I gave you some shower stuff too, in case you wanted to take a shower. I don’t know if there’s any stuff in there already.”

“Thank you.” she says, looking each of us in the eyes. “Both of you. For all… this. I don’t mean to be a bother.”

“You’re not a bother.” me and Kim say at the same time and then give eachother the same little scowl we always do when we unintentionally mimic eachother. My scowl drops at the sound of Hailey laughing at the looks on our faces.

“You realize the look just makes you guys even more twin like, right?” she asks with an amused expression on her face.

I just grumble and turn to leave the room and hear laughter coming from both girls. I decide to just go sit on the couch downstairs, knowing my sister will probably talk with her and then come find me.

Sure enough in less than five minutes she comes and sits next to me. “She’s gonna take a shower,” she tells me. “I told her to come find us when she’s done and that we’d probably be down here.”

I give it a minute to see if she’s going to say anything else about the situation but she doesn't. I sit up a little and turn to face her. “So that’s it?” I ask. “You’re not gonna interrogate me and question why I brought a girl we just met today home and offered up our guest room?”

She sighs. “What do you want me to say Jay?” she asks. “Fine. I’ll bite. I am curious about how this happened, but I gotta admit I’m not exactly freaking out about it. She doesn’t seem the type to try and pull anything, we won’t get in trouble and more importantly I know you’d have at least some sort of explanation.” she finishes. 

“Well that’s the thing!” I try to keep my voice down but even my head is spinning from all that’s happened. It’s only seven but it feels so much later. “I honestly don’t know what I’m doing. I found her at the park on the way home and she was cold and by herself and she didn’t want a ride home and she told me to just leave her there but I couldn’t do that and be okay with it so I was just all like ‘well guess I’m taking you to my house’ and basically kidnapped her.” I finish with a breathe. “and now we’re here.”

Kim sets her hand on my knee. “Jay,” she says, in her most calming voice. “It's fine.” she tells me, “You did the right thing, better she gets a shower and our guest bed than staying out in the Chicago cold in just a shirt for however long. Obviously somethings off about her, but we both know that girls no threat to us so stop worrying over nothing.”

I rub my head with my fingers and close my eyes for a second. “It’s not even that. I’m worried for her, there’s clearly something going on and I want to help, but how am I supposed to help somebody I don’t even know?”

“I guess you’ll just have to be patient. Pushing her won’t do any good, let her come to us, let her decide on her own if she can trust us to help. She let you take her here and didn’t seem to mind me giving her my clothes so that’s a start.” She says with a shrug. Then she grabs the remote and hands it to me. “For now let’s just have a nice evening and when she comes down we can watch a movie or something.”

I look at her for a second before a blow out a breath. “Yeah.” I tell her, “You’re right” She pats my knee twice then stands up and starts walking to the kitchen.

“I’ll make popcorn!” she calls back over her shoulder and with that, I turn on the TV and start going through the channels looking for a movie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll try to get chapter 3 out as soon as possible, but truth be told I'm still not exactly sure how the entirety of this story is going to play out just a vague idea of what I want. Open to any and all suggestions and critiques! Thank you again for giving your time to this story! :)

**Author's Note:**

> If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading! Hope you liked it? Anything I could improve? Open to suggestions and feedback!


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